"Yeah, any bodywork area, everybody's always looking," Howes said. "It's an area that you'll go as far as you can because, yes, it will affect the performance of the car. That's the nature of this kind of racing, especially at Daytona. That's an area that teams will work in. The 48 obviously went too far."

He said he hasn't asked Knaus for an explanation on how or why the modifications were made. He said it could be that the template didn't fit properly.

"You work within the templates the best way you think and you're trying to do a better job than the next guy," Howes said. "And I did not see the grid on the car, so I can't tell exactly where it missed, but NASCAR said it wasn't right, so it's not right. We don't have an argument with that."

Series director John Darby said he believed the other three Hendrick Motorsports cars - those driven by Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne - passed inspection.

He added that the No. 48 team should be able to get things fixed.

"If you watch the damage that they can repair in 50 laps, they're very, very talented," Darby said. "They are pretty simple panels. It's a matter of cutting the old ones out, welding new ones in. It'll obviously go back through inspection to make sure all the templates are correct."